Foreign educational certificates

Are you interested in studying in Germany and only have foreign educational qualifications? In principle, you fulfil the qualification requirements for studying in Germany if your educational qualifications allow you to study at a university in your country of origin. Certain conditions apply. These are published in the assessment proposals of the Central Office for Foreign Education of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) in the database www.anabin.kmk.org.

Foto: Julien Fertl / Bundesagentur für Arbeit
A group of four young people show cards that are formed like speech bubbles. Each of them says hello in a different language.

The respective university usually decides on the recognition of educational certificates as part of the admission procedure. Recognition is limited to the intended degree programme, i.e. a new decision is required if you change degree programmes. The federal states can set up a central certificate recognition office in their state for the assessment of foreign educational certificates. The decisions apply nationwide, unless they are limited to the respective state. You can find the addresses of all recognition centres in Germany at www.anabin.kmk.org. For 150 German universities (state and private), www.uni-assist.de carries out the preliminary examination procedure on behalf of the respective university.

If no direct university admission is possible according to the assessment proposals, you must pass a so-called ‘assessment test’ before starting your degree programme, which is usually preceded by one year of preparation at a preparatory college. If the assessment proposals do not include a classification, the competent authorities under state law will decide.

Stand: 09.07.2025